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# plateau

«plateau» in Mova's school dictionary: **a large, flat area of high land, higher than the land…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a plateau, plateaus or plateaux); verb (plateau, plateaus, plateaued, plateauing)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A plateau is a large, flat area of high land, higher than the land around it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/#m1)

2) A plateau is a time when something stops going up or down and stays at the same level («Her progress reached a plateau»). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/#m2)

3) To plateau is to stop growing or improving and stay level. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In geography lessons, plateaus such as the Tibetan Plateau or the Colorado Plateau are landforms, like mountains and valleys. In maths and science, on a line graph a plateau is the flat part where the value stays the same. In sport and learning, you «hit a plateau» when you stop improving for a while.

### examples

- The Tibetan Plateau is the highest in the world. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/#x1)
- The village stands on a flat plateau above the valley. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/#x2)
- On the graph, the line reaches a plateau after ten minutes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/#x3)
- My reading scores have plateaued this term. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/#x4)
- Athletes sometimes hit a plateau in training. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/#x5)
- The temperature rose, then plateaued at 100 °C as the water boiled. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/#x6)
- Cows grazed on the windy plateau. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/#x7)

### note

Plural: plateaus or plateaux (French spelling). Pronounced «PLAT-oh». On a graph, a flat line means «no change» in the amount.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «plateau» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/plateau/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.